Darrow Miller and Friends

We Live in a MORAL UNIVERSE

  1. We Live in a MORAL UNIVERSE
  2. MORALS Matter in a Moral Universe

Throughout history the Jewish people have been persecuted. In the last century Hitler and the Nazis sought to wipe the Jews from the face of the earth and succeeded in killing over 6,000,000 in the Holocaust. Today anti-Semitism is rising globally. Political Islam has called for the destruction of the state of Israel and driving the Jews into the sea.

What has caused such hatred? Some say their “Jewishness,” their blood or their “race,” it is just because they are Jews. Others blame jealousy over their financial success andanti-Semitism ignores that we live in a moral universe their disproportionate influence in business and politics in many societies. While many reasons are given, one reason goes much deeper and is seldom talked about. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

A couple of years ago I was lecturing on postmodernism to a group of young evangelical and charismatic Christians. I used the term “moral universe.” Afterwards, the conference conveners told me the young people had no idea of what I was talking about when I used the term moral universe. I was stunned.

Obviously not everyone agrees that we live in a moral universe, but most would understand the concept. Certainly those with an atheist faith would deny the concept of a moral universe. But these were not atheists; they were professing theists of a Christian persuasion.

We live in a moral universe because God is a moral God! His nature is Goodness, Truth and Beauty. God is Good! Things outside his Goodness are evil.

God’s nature establishes the framework of the universe. Physical order reflects its natural laws, moral order reflects its moral laws.

Who’s in charge?

The West wants to dethrone God and put man at the center of the universe. Sometimes the term “enlightenment project” is used to capture this futile, dangerous exercise in playing god, setting human rules of good and evil. We are seeing the reality of this working out on television news every night.

God created human beings as morally free and responsible agents.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Gen. 2:16-17 (ESV)

the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is evidence we live in a moral universeThe tree of the knowledge of good and evil enshrines the reality of human freedom. To be free to choose to eat what has been forbidden establishes the reality of our free and responsible will.

The beginning of the enlightenment project is found in Genesis 3:22: “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever,’”(ESV).

As recorded in Genesis 3:4-5, Satan tempted the woman. “But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (ESV)

Ah! The choice is made to be like God! To know good and evil! When the choice is made, the enlightenment project begins. Man replaces God with himself as the center of the universe.

Idols instead of God

The enlightenment project does not recognize the Good. Man decides what is good and evil. Man plays at being god. This is the source of the pagan world. Paganism exchanges the one monotheistic God for small idols of the human imagination. Pagan animistic cultures are almost universally marked by:

  • Sensuality
  • Self-indulgence
  • Sexual immorality
  • Faithlessness in marriage
  • Human sacrifice (a low view of human life)paganism denies we live in a moral universe
  • Fatalism
  • Corruption (bribery of the gods)

Where might you see these things in your own society?

A universe without a good God is a universe without a moral framework. This produces

  • Pagan morality – relativism
  • Pagan sexuality – anything goes, sex of any kind without responsibility
  • Pagan economics – business done through bribery, corruption, and theft
  • Pagan justice – mob rule and court corruption
  • Pagan anthropology – life is cheap, genocide, infanticide, gendercide, abortion, etc.

Jews and Christians are ethical monotheists; they affirm that the One True God is good and just, his character establishes the universe as moral.

However, ethical monotheism did not begin with the Jews, or even with the creation. Ethical monotheism had no beginning; its origin is in the character of the infinite, personal God of the universe.

God called Abraham to bless the nations:

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Gen 12:2-3 ESV

God wants to bless the nations

Part of the blessing of the nations is revealing the presence of the good God to the pagan world, showing the nature of his character as well as the nature of the moral universe.

Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him. Gen 18:18-19 NIV

human kindness is evidence we live in a moral universeGod’s mission is to bless nations. He raised up Abraham and his descendants, the Jewish people, for that purpose. They were to fulfill what would later be known as the Micah Mandate: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Mic 6:8 ESV

The Jews were to proclaim ethical monotheism and model for all nations the moral standards of God and his universe.

This is why God raised up Moses and gave to the Jews, and through them to the whole world, the moral law, the 10 Commandments. The moral law is a gift of the Jews to the nations. When we live within the framework of the moral law we bring freedom, social justice, and economic flourishing to the nations.

Paganism brings moral and sexual chaos, corruption, injustice, the taking of innocent human life, the breakdown of the family, the deterioration and impoverishment of societies. We see these vices around the world where paganism dominates. “Do your own thing! Do what feels good! Follow your instincts! Live without boundaries and restraints.”

  • Darrow Miller

… to be continued

print this page Print this page

About 
Darrow is co-founder of the Disciple Nations Alliance and a featured author and teacher. For over 30 years, Darrow has been a popular conference speaker on topics that include Christianity and culture, apologetics, worldview, poverty, and the dignity of women. From 1981 to 2007 Darrow served with Food for the Hungry International (now FH association), and from 1994 as Vice President. Before joining FH, Darrow spent three years on staff at L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland where he was discipled by Francis Schaeffer. He also served as a student pastor at Northern Arizona University and two years as a pastor of Sherman Street Fellowship in urban Denver, CO. In addition to earning his Master’s degree in Adult Education from Arizona State University, Darrow pursued graduate studies in philosophy, theology, Christian apologetics, biblical studies, and missions in the United States, Israel, and Switzerland. Darrow has authored numerous studies, articles, Bible studies and books, including Discipling Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Culture (YWAM Publishing, 1998), Nurturing the Nations: Reclaiming the Dignity of Women for Building Healthy Cultures (InterVarsity Press, 2008), LifeWork: A Biblical Theology for What You Do Every Day (YWAM, 2009), Rethinking Social Justice: Restoring Biblical Compassion (YWAM, 2015), and more. These resources along with links to free e-books, podcasts, online training programs and more can be found at Disciple Nations Alliance (https://disciplenations.org).
Shares